Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Colossal Fossil Bugs

Scientists have found a clawbelonging to a scorpion eight feet longif it were intact

The biggest bug ever! exclaims the newspaperexhilarated by the findas momentarily am I, a Scorpio

more so, maybe, than a Leo or an Arieswho could give a rat’s ass for scorpionseven if they are eight feet long

I am shocked too upon consideringthat horror movie makers may be the visionariesof the world—imagine, omigod

Why only a claw? Where is the restof the scorpion, and is it in another rocklonging for its warrior selfwrenched from it how? in battle or loveor a simple stupid accident when it was fishingfor a morsel it could have done without

But its hard-to-fathom age—400 million years, say the paleontologistswith miraculous certainty

is what really gives me pause to wonderhow the hell do they know

******Today’s news reports that marine biologists have recorded 17,650 species living in the ocean depths where the sunlight ceases. They are weird shaped and living on the snow-like decaying matter that drifts down from above.

They hope to announce by the end of the ongoing census that a million or more species remain unknown, in addition to the 235,000 living in the extreme ocean depths, which they thought was a desert until this plethora of living things showed up. On land, they’ve catalogued 1.5 million types of plants and animals.

It costs $50,000 a day to operate the equipment. What’s the daily cost of the war?

I don’t know why this fascinates me so much. It’s not going to change my life. But I like the idea of people searching for our fellow creatures, and the great myriad life forms make me thankful to live on planet Earth.

My gratitude list today:Scientists who ask questions and seek answers.Colossal fossil bugs.Sobriety, which makes me marvel at life.That God put me on planet Earth and not the moon.That recovery has brought me to a Higher Power who knows all.That we have brains, and God helps us use them.That I can read.That I can write.That I don’t have to drink today to get all jazzed up about life.Happy Thanksgiving.Cheers,Chris

22 comments:

I think that undiscovered creatures are infinite.It's a typical human idea that we'll figure it all out and get to the end of it. I'm married to a Scorpio and I'm an Aries. Scorpios rock!As always you make me smile. jeNN

I am grateful for the way you think, and the healing of your brain after it's metabolic schism, and the firing of new brain circuits with each connection you stretch into new poetry. A blogger I admire said poetry scares her and haiku terrifies her.So we all stretch out our neurons and grow....

what a cool find. as a kid this would have been all the more fascinating as my imagination would run wild with the possibilities. i think it is cool when they find things we have never seen before. maybe its just my inner indiana jones coming out...and hey i am a leo...so watch what you say...lol.

Thanks for writing this. I am a marine scientist and have been 3 miles down in the ocean. My dissertation was on deep sea organisms. I appreciate the census of marine life and currently have a project that participates in this program. We know so little about our own planet. And we are slowly destroying it.

Wow! Ever see the opening scene of Peckinpah's, "The Wild Bunch" where the kids are taunting the scorpions? Imagine if they were the size of this newly discovered one! It would be Peckinpah in "Land of the Giants".

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I'm a poet, gardener, and freelance writer who lives in California by the coast, in a small town surrounded by pastures, woods, and vineyards. Other things I am: recovering LA magazine editor and recovering alcoholic, wife of a tolerant man, mom to two beautiful daughters, mistress of beagles and cats, lover of mysteries and photography, a survivor of suicide, depression, addiction, and sundry minor ailments. I write for a living and write poetry for life.

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